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EPA Awards $1 Million in Brownfields Grants to Programs in Georgia

Release Date: 05/10/2005
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( Atlanta - May 10, 2005) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it has awarded $1 million in Brownfields Grants to help communities in Georgia revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, transforming them from problem properties into community assets. The Brownfields Program empowers states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic development to work together to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields. Participants in the brownfields program gain access to expertise and other resources from more than 20 federal agencies.

A brownfield site is real property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of harmful contaminants. The Brownfields Program promotes redevelopment of America's estimated 450,000 abandoned and contaminated waste sites. Since its inception in 1995, the program has awarded 709 assessment grants totaling more than $190 million, 189 revolving loan fund grants worth more than $165 million, and $26.8 million for 150 cleanup grants.  

In addition to facilitating industrial and commercial redevelopment, brownfields projects have converted industrial waterfronts to river-front parks, landfills to golf courses, rail corridors to recreational trails, and gas station sites to housing. EPA's brownfields assistance has led to more than $7 billion in public and private investment in cleanup and redevelopment, helped create more than 31,000 jobs, and resulted in the assessment of more than 5,100 properties.

Grants announced today include:

BRUNSWICK , Ga. , Brownfields Assessment Grant $200,000 for hazardous substances

The city of Brunswick’s will use grant funds to prioritize sites, perform site assessments, and develop cleanup and redevelopment plans for sites with potential hazardous waste. Funds also will be used to conduct community outreach and health monitoring activities.

ATLANTA, Ga., Brownfields Assessment Grant $200,000 for hazardous substances/ $200,000 for petroleum

Atlanta will use the h azardous substances grant funds to create a master plan for brownfields assessment, conduct community outreach, perform site assessments, develop cleanup plans, and link all information into a geographic information system database for sites in three areas of Atlanta where redevelopment may have the greatest chance of success. Petroleum funds will be used to perform these tasks for properties suspected of having, or with confirmed, leaking underground storage tanks.

DASH for LaGrange, Inc., Ga., Brownfields Cleanup Grant $200,000 for petroleum

DASH for LaGrange, Inc., plans to use grant funds to clean up contamination resulting from an underground release of petroleum products to groundwater originating at 614 Jefferson Street, location of a former gasoline station. The contamination also has affected the adjacent properties at 622 and 624 Jefferson Street. Together, these three contiguous properties are known as the Jefferson Street Site.

HINESVILLE, Ga., Brownfields Assessment Grant $200,000 for petroleum

The city of Hinesville will use grant funds to conduct community outreach activities, perform site assessments, and develop cleanup and reuse plans for sites throughout the city. Funds also will be used to monitor the health of residents in neighborhoods surrounding the sites.

For more information on the grant recipients, go to: https://www.epa.gov/swerosps/bf/archive/pilot_arch.htm

More information on brownfields in general is at https://www.epa.gov/brownfields

CONTACT: Dawn Harris-Young, EPA Media Relations, 404-562-8421